Friday, January 27, 2017

simple days at home

Chickens ~ I love watching our girls go about their day. They take the complication out of my life, even if only for a short time. They live such simple lives compared to ours. Maybe we are missing something?

Wildflowers ~ with all the rain that has fallen this year, these little daisy plants have popped up everywhere.

Laundry days ~ There will always be daily chores to do, and this
little helper makes life so much easier. Can you tell?

Pot pourri ~ I am trying to make my own this year.

Cups of tea ~ are very popular in our house. I always make a teapot of tea, it tastes so
much better. The old bread boards were an op shop find.They were pretty tatty and tired, but a good
scrub and a soak in oil has brought life back into them.

Old dresser ~ this was once painted pink, black and green and covered in grease. I found it years ago in my dads workshop on our farm. After convincing dad he didn't need it any more, the paint was removed and we restored it back to this lovely piece of well made furniture. Now it is displayed proudly in our dining room.

Vintage salt and pepper shakers ~ a lovely gift from hubby.

Baking ~ I found another recipe using zucchini. A moist chocolate and zucchini loaf from here.

Bread ~ this week I made a loaf and some more rolls
from sourdough. Easy now I know how. I sat them in the car to rise. The perfect place on a warm day.

Figs ~ these came from our friends tree. We have been taking care of her place while
she is away. We gathered eight kilograms of figs and they have been sliced and put in the freezer for now.Tomatoes ~ I am picking and eating these every day now. Some of these will be dried. I love sun dried tomatoes.Simple Lunch ~ toasted homemade bread, home grown tomato and cucumber. Sprinkled with salt, pepper and oregano, then drizzled with organic olive oil.

Sturt's desert peas ~ we have the right soil and conditions
for growing these. I planted them out
when it was raining on Monday night, and have covered them so the chickens don't scratch them out.

Roses ~ I have been gathering bunches of yellow roses from my friends garden, displaying them for a while, and
then into my homemade potpourri they go.

Op shop finds ~ A visit to the op shop and hubby was excited
to find an old retro tape recorder. It had no cord but was only two dollars, so we
took a chance. Luckily dad had a cord in his collection that fitted perfectly. It works.

Crochet rug ~ I simply cannot leave something this lovely in
an op shop. From experience, I know how
long these blankets take to make, and so this one has made its way into my
home.Crochet book ~ twenty cents for this 1955 book. Lots to look at and hopefully learn some new skills.

Out the window ~ the view with my windchimes, mother in law tongues slowing coming to life and tulip pelargonium.

Hippy hat ~ we couldn’t resist at a recent market and came home with two of
these.

The Simple Home ~ the postie has delivered this lovely book, now
to make time for some good down to earth reading.

Grandbaby ~ handsome boy at a recent birthday dinner.

Sundown ~ always beautiful.

Browsing through old cooking books ~ getting back to the basics with my cooking. A good lesson for me this week when my
dad told me his doctor asked him how he keeps so healthy. Dad replied, “I don’t
eat junk, and I keep busy." My parents are
elderly now; dad is 80, mum 77 and together they have started a new adventure
on ten acres. They are fit and healthy and I think it is because they stick to basic foods, with most of their food grown or raised at home. They also walk every.single.day. Just recently and all by himself, Dad built a shed on their new block. I hope I am able to do this kind of thing going into my old age. Dads motto is; " keep on moving, if you stop, that is it!"

Spider lily ~ looking lovely.

Lisianthus ~ these plants were looking really sad in our
local grocery store. I hope to revive them with some loving care. I cut the
flowers off, gave them a drink of rain water and added a bit of fertilizer. Now
I wait.Lamingtons ~ our Australia Day treat. Definitely homemade using Lady Flo's recipe.

My posts seem to be awfully long, who knew there was so much happening in our week? Maybe I need to post more often ~smiles.How was your week? Did you do something special for Australia day?

33 comments:

Beautiful portrayal of the "everyday" I always get a warm fuzzy feeling when I read your blog :)

In regards to the Laminations, I made some for Australia Day this year, and I made 2 batches, one was a basic butter cake recipe (like Flo's) the other was a sponge cake recipe, the sponge cake won hands down! I suggest you try it next time.

The reason I hedged my bets and made two types of cake is I've NEVER made a successful sponge until now, and I consider myself to be a very good baker!! I pulled out an old Women's Weekly cookbook, and studied every tip, trick and hint in it, and ended up making the nicest sponge I've ever tasted...and now I'm hooked! :)

We didn't do too much on Australia day either Nanna Chel. We went to visit my parents, that is all lol!

I am a bit worried about the Sturt's Desert Peas as we hare having very hot weather at the moment and they are not looking the best. I shall cover them with a towel tomorrow to help with the heat. It is going to be 44C here on Monday!

Those figs look good, I have two trees but I haven't got any after years of growing since it gets so cold that they get damaged. I had figs last year but they froze before getting ripe.If I ever get a crop I think I will make fig preserves. Good that you got to pick that lot of figs or some animal might have eaten them.

What a lovely glimpse into your life, Tania. Simple and beautiful everyday things and moments. I love the photo of your laundry helper with all those pegs! It made me think of a once little boy here who used to love "hanging" out the washing on our small drying rack. We spent Australia Day here at home, just us, and it was an ordinary and happy day behind our gates. Meg:)

I love the sound of your Australia Day Meg. We just pottered around in the morning then after lunch we went to visit my parents. That night we shouted ourselves some good old fashioned fish and chips. It was such a nice day and night weather wise.

My kids all loved pegs. I do not have many toys here for this reason, and what is here is wooden so they last. Who needs toys when you have pegs and saucepan lids? Best toys ever!

Who wouldn't love to do the never ending laundry when they have such a gorgeous little helper. I can never understand why people put crocheted rug into their donation bags. Rugs like the lovely one you have picked up are works of art, love and time. That pink vase with the roses in it is divine. Our Australia Day was spent at home. We talked about where we might head off to in the caravan this year. It was wonderful to be able to look at making future plans after last years health crisis. So whilst we didn't do much it was lovely to think we have a future to plan for.

As always you blog posts make me smile...love the hats, sunset and sturt desert peas- probably because they are so rare to find in a garden ...although I saw them at Bunnings one year and took some photos . Must find those photos!